Wicklow cousins win farm safety award

ABP Food Group Farm Safety Award?Martin Kane, Managing Director of ABP Food Group presents the ABP Food Group Farm Safety Award to Alexander Brady, Jack Brady, Colaiste Chraobh Abhann, Wicklow�for their project 'The Use Of A Mechanism On The Gates Of A Livestock Trailer To Decrease Farm Injuries' in the Technology Intermediate Group Category. 'Photo Chris Bellew / Fennell Photography

Published:08:00Thursday 25 January 2018

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First cousins Alexander Brady and Jack Brady, were overall winners of the ABP Farm Safety Award at the recent BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) with their innovative project “The Use of a Mechanism on the Gates of a Livestock Trailer to Decrease Farm Injuries”.

The students from Colaiste Chraobh Abhann, Co. Wicklow impressed the judges with their practical safety measures on equipment that is used on a daily basis across Irish farms.

For the fourth consecutive year, ABP Food Group sponsored the Farm Safety category, which year-on-year has produced ground breaking safety projects that can be utilised on farms across Ireland. The company also hosted a stand at this year’s event with the assistance of Agri Kids, Ireland’s leading farm safety educational platform for children. ABP ran a number of practical farm safety presentations by Jim Dockery and his team from Farm Relief Services. Through peer-to-peer activity and demonstrations, ABP helped spread the word on farm safety and the necessity to educate all farm users, including young people.

Martin Kane, Managing Director ABP Ireland, said: “Congratulations to Alexander Brady and Jack Brady on their successful award submission. Their project captured the ethos of the category, which aims to focus on improving safety on farms and educating people about the dangers of accidents in a farming environment.

“The continued goal of this sponsorship is to increase awareness particularly amongst young people about the dangers on our farms and finding solutions to these dangers. Unfortunately, farm safety is still very much an issue in Ireland and more attention needs to be given to it, as has been indicated by the figures released by the HSA concerning farming deaths last year. We hope that our efforts at the exhibition will make more people aware of farm safety precautions.”

The issue of farm safety is still very prevalent in Ireland today. Last year, 24 people were killed in farming accidents according to the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), 14 of whom were over the age of 65. Fourteen of those deaths resulted from tractor and farming vehicle accidents, including quadbikes, a vehicle used by many farmers including young people.